Arts & Culture | Theater

She put modern dance on a new footing by infusing it with dramatic expression and social consciousness. Now, Anna Sokolow, the revolutionary Jewish choreographer who inspired many of the leading actors and dancers of the 20th century, takes center stage again next week in two shows that commemorate her remarkable legacy. Highlights from her work will be performed in “Anna Sokolow Way,” and dancers who worked with her will recount their memories and demonstrate her techniques in “From the Horse’s Mouth.” The shows are being performed in repertory through this weekend at the 14th Street Y.

If there is a single lesson to be learned from both the story of the Chanukah oil and the tale of the birth of Jesus, it is that when all else fails, expect the unexpected. Little wonder, then, that winter holiday shows often take a zany, unpredictable approach to the mash-up of Chanukah and Christmas. Less Than Rent’s first annual holiday pageant, “How LTR Stole Christmas,” combines elf choirs, holiday sweater stripteases, and an unorthodox retelling of the Chanukah story in a broad satire of the holiday season. The show runs for three performances on Tuesday nights in December in the East Village.

Of all the holidays in the Jewish calendar, Chanukah may be the one most beloved by children. It also provides one of the best opportunities for teaching children valuable lessons. Just ask Karin Hershkovitz-Kochavi, an immigrant from Israel, who, along with Denise Kornitz, founded the Yeladudes Theater last year to produce bilingual English-Hebrew shows for youth. Their new show, “The Chanukah Miracle,” helps children to draw from Jewish tradition in order to take charge of their own lives.

It was a kind of Canadian spin-off of “Fiddler on the Roof.” When Jan Kadar’s cinematic classic, “Lies My Father Told Me,” premiered in 1975, it was hailed as a stunning evocation of Jewish life in Montreal in the 1920s, as the older immigrant generation and its ways began to fade into obsolescence. The tale of a 6-year- old boy caught between his Tevye-like grandfather and his ambitious, money-hungry father, the film rode the wave of multiculturalism that had engulfed North America, and focused new attention on Jewish ethnicity.

She may not have the name recognition of some of her male peers, but Dorothy Fields was one of the most successful Broadway lyricists of the 20th century. Now she returns for one night only in Pippa White’s one-woman cabaret show, “I Can’t Give You Anything but Songs,” a loving tribute to a remarkably talented and prolific, yet relatively unsung, Jewish songwriter. White, who is accompanied by Vince Learned, will appear next Thursday, Nov. 21 at 9 p.m. on Theatre Row.

Despite Talmudic teachings about treating the aged with reverence, elderly people are often relegated to the margins of our society. But to playwright Richard Abrons, whose “Every Day a Visitor,” is being revived this month, the last phase of life can be filled with great creativity, energy and vigor. The play opens next Thursday evening for a month-long run at the Clurman Theatre in Midtown, with George Morfogen (from the HBO series “Oz”) leading a nine-member cast.